Dougla people (plural ''Douglas'') are Caribbean people who are of mixed
African and
Indian
Indian or Indians may refer to:
Peoples South Asia
* Indian people, people of Indian nationality, or people who have an Indian ancestor
** Non-resident Indian, a citizen of India who has temporarily emigrated to another country
* South Asia ...
descent. The word ''Dougla'' (also Dugla or Dogla) is used throughout the Dutch and
English-speaking Caribbean.
Definition
The word ''Dougla'' originated from doogala (), which is a
Caribbean Hindustani word that literally means "two-necks" and may mean "many", "much" or "a mix". In the West Indies, the word is used only for
mixed race Afro-Indians. The word has its etymological roots in Hindi, where "do" means "two" and "gala" means "throat," potentially referring to people who could speak Indian and African languages.
The 2012 Guyana census identified 29.25% of the population as
Afro-Guyanese, 39.83% as
Indo-Guyanese, and 19.88% as "mixed," recognized as mostly representing the offspring of the former two groups.
In the
French West Indies (
Guadeloupe,
Martinique), mixed Afro-Indian people used to be called Batazendyen or Chapé-Kouli.
History
There are sporadic records of Indo-Euro interracial relationships, both consensual and nonconsensual, before any ethnic mixing of the African and Indian variety.
Other Indo-based types of mixed heritage (Indo-Chinese (
Chindians),
Indo-Latino/Hispanic (Tegli), Indo-English (
Anglo-Indians), Indo-Portuguese (
Luso-Indian
Luso-Indians or Portuguese-Indian, is a subgroup of the larger multiracial ethnic creole people of Luso-Asians. Luso-Indians are people who have mixed varied Indian subcontinent and European Portuguese ancestry or people of Portuguese descent ...
s), Indo-Irish (
Irish Indians), Indo-Scottish (
Scottish-Indians), Indo-
Dutch, Indo-
Arabs
The Arabs (singular: Arab; singular ar, عَرَبِيٌّ, DIN 31635: , , plural ar, عَرَب, DIN 31635: , Arabic pronunciation: ), also known as the Arab people, are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in Western Asia, ...
and Indo-
Amerindian) tended to identify as one of the older, unmixed ethnic strains on the island: Afro, Indo, Amerindian or Euro or
passing as one of them.
In Trinidad culture
In 1961, the
calypsonian musician
Mighty Dougla (born Cletus Ali) described the predicament of Douglas:
Notable Douglas
*
Cletus Ali, Trinidadian musician, better known as Mighty Dougla
*
Tatyana Ali
Tatyana Marisol Ali is an American actress and singer best known for her role as Ashley Banks on the NBC sitcom ''The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air'' from 1990 to 1996. She starred as Tyana Jones on the TV One original series '' Love That Girl!'', a ...
,
Indo-Trinidadian
Indo-Trinidadians and Tobagonians or Indian-Trinidadians and Tobagonians, are people of Indian origin who are nationals of Trinidad and Tobago whose ancestors came from India and the wider subcontinent beginning in 1845.
Indo-Trinidadians an ...
/
Afro-Panamanian American actress
*
Esther Anderson, actress (United Kingdom; born in Jamaica)
*
Johnson Beharry,
Grenadian British soldier in the
British Army
The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurkha ...
*
Melissa Bell,
Jamaican British singer and mother of
Alexandra Burke
*
Foxy Brown, rapper (United States; Trinidadian and Tobagonian background)
*
Alexandra Burke, British Jamaican singer and daughter of
Melissa Bell
*
Super Cat, Jamaican deejay
[Barrow, Steve & Dalton, Peter (2004) ''The Rough Guide to Reggae'', Rough Guides, , p. 286]
*
Sabrina Colie
Sabrina Diana Colie is an actor and film and theatre director. She was born in Mandeville, Jamaica and resides in New York City.
Education
Colie completed her elementary education at Mt. St. Joseph Preparatory and high school and sixth form at ...
, actress (United States; born in Jamaica)
*
Mervyn Dymally, Trinidadian American politician
*
Special Ed, rapper (United States; Jamaican background)
*
Marlene Malahoo Forte, politician (Jamaica)
*
Amy Ashwood Garvey
Amy Ashwood Garvey (''née'' Ashwood; 10 January 1897 – 3 May 1969) was a Jamaican Pan-Africanist activist. She was a director of the Black Star Line Steamship Corporation, and along with her former husband Marcus Garvey she founded the '' N ...
, activist (Jamaica)
*
Masaba Gupta
Masaba Gupta (born 2 November 1989) is an Indian fashion designer and an actress with her own label called House of Masaba.
Early life
Masaba Gupta was born in 1989 and is the daughter of Indian actress Neena Gupta and West Indies cricketer Vi ...
, actress and fashion designer (Antiguan and Indian)
*
Lisa Hanna, Miss World 1993, MP Saint Ann South Eastern
*
Kamala Harris,
Vice-President
A vice president, also director in British English, is an officer in government or business who is below the president (chief executive officer) in rank. It can also refer to executive vice presidents, signifying that the vice president is on ...
of the United States (Jamaican and South Indian)
*
Maya Harris
Maya Lakshmi Harris (born January 30, 1967) is an American lawyer, public policy advocate, and writer. Harris was one of three senior policy advisors for Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign's policy agenda and she also served as chair o ...
, lawyer and writer (Jamaican and South Indian)
*
Lester Holt, U.S. news anchor and journalist
[Today Show: "Lester and Jenna trace their Jamaican roots"]
Aired on September 9, 2012
*
Kenny J, calysonian
*
Diana King, singer (United States; born in Jamaica)
*
Jeffery Kissoon
Jeffery Kissoon (born 4 September 1947) is an actor with credits in British theatre, television, film and radio. He has performed with the Royal Shakespeare Company at venues such as the Royal National Theatre, under directors including Peter ...
, actor
*
Sonnet L'Abbé,
Guyanese Canadian poet
*
Sir Trevor McDonald,
Trinidadian British news anchor and journalist
*
Nicki Minaj
Onika Tanya Maraj-Petty (; born December 8, 1982), known professionally as Nicki Minaj ( ), is a Trinidadian-born rapper based in the United States. She is known for her musical versatility, animated flow in her rapping, alter egos and accents ...
, singer, rapper (United States; born in Trinidad and Tobago)
*
Nicole Narain, model and actress
*
Rajee Narinesingh, LGBT activist (United States; Trinidadian and Tobagonian background)
*
Furdjel Narsingh, footballer (Netherlands; Surinamese background)
*
Luciano Narsingh, footballer (Netherlands; Surinamese background)
*
Roxanne Persaud, politician (United States; born in Guyana)
*
Yendi Phillips
Yendi Amira Phillipps (born 8 September 1985) is a Jamaican TV host, model and beauty queen who was the winner of the Miss Jamaica World 2007 beauty pageant, as well as the Miss Jamaica Universe 2010 pageant. She represented Jamaica at the Mis ...
, model (Jamaica)
*
Thara Prashad
Thara Natalie Prashad (born January 16, 1982), also known as Thara, is an American R&B singer and model. Her father is Indo-Guyanese while her mother is part Irish and part African-American. Formerly signed to the Desert Storm label most known f ...
, singer and model
*
Gema Ramkeesoon, social worker and women's rights activist (Trinidad and Tobago)
*
Kumar Rocker, American baseball player (African American and Telugu)
* Kenneth Salick,
chutney soca singer
*
Krishmar Santokie
Krishmar Santokie (born 20 December 1984) is a cricketer who plays for Jamaica and has represented the West Indies at international Twenty20 level. He bowls left-arm medium pace and is a lower order batsman.
Domestic career
He represented the G ...
, cricketer
*
Abrahim Simmonds, youth advocate (Jamaica)
*
Toni-Ann Singh
Toni-Ann Singh (born February 1996) is a Jamaican beauty queen who won Miss World 2019. She was previously crowned Miss Jamaica World 2019 and is the fourth woman from Jamaica to win Miss World. She is also the longest-reigning Miss World in th ...
, Miss World 2019 (Jamaica)
*
XXXTentacion, rapper
*
Justine Skye, entertainer (Jamaica)
*
Joyce Vincent
Joyce Carol Vincent (19 October 1965 – December 2003) was an English woman whose death went unnoticed for more than two years as her corpse lay undiscovered at her bedsit in north London. Prior to her death, she had cut off nearly all contact ...
, British woman whose death went unnoticed for over two years (Grenadian of Black and Indian ancestry)
See also
*
Indo-African (disambiguation)
African-Indian, usually refers to people of mixed Indian and African heritage.
*By demographic
** Dougla, Caribbean people who are of mixed African and Indian descent.
*Members of the Indian diaspora living in Africa and citizens of India living ...
*
Marabou (ethnicity)
Marabou (french: marabout) is a term of Haitian origin denoting multiracial admixture. The term, which comes originally from the African Marabouts, describes the offspring of a Haitian person of mixed race: European, African, Taíno and South ...
References
Further reading
* Barratt, Sue A, and Aleah N. Ranjitsingh. ''Dougla in the Twenty-First Century: Adding to the Mix''. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2021. . See also CUNY Asian and Asian American Research Institut
author interviewon 19 November 2021.
{{Indian diaspora
Ethnic groups in Trinidad and Tobago
Multiracial affairs in the Caribbean
Multiracial affairs in South America
*
Indo-Caribbean
Afro-Caribbean